


Flashback 2281

by psiten



Series: Super Dimension Warrior Voltron [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Allura/Lance (Voltron) - Freeform, Background Keith/Shiro (Voltron) - Freeform, Deleted Scenes, Explaining Human Sexuality to Aliens, Future Fic, Gen, I Know the Heath Thing But I'm Ignoring It, I'm Calling Keith's Dad 'Tex' - Sorry Not Sorry, No Plot/Plotless, References to Past Krolia/Keith's Dad (Voltron), Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 09:02:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20225263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psiten/pseuds/psiten
Summary: While working on "Do You Remember Love?" there were several scenes or bits of conversations that got cut because trying to wedge them in didn't fit the plot, or they made something drag on too long. They all seemed to involve Krolia sassing someone, so I ended up saving them in a file I called "Krolia's Hot Takes". Once the main fic was over, however, I couldn't let them go, so I've written up five unconnected "Deleted Scenes" from various points in the timeline for general amusement.It may be a good idea to read "Do You Remember Love?" first to get context, but you make your own destiny. Don't let me tell you what to do.





	1. Spice Mines Aren't a Thing

[Approximately nine years before Chapter 1]

Krolia eyed the prisoner sitting on the other side of her desk, then glared at Kolivan. "Remind me how this is my problem?"

"Your son is the one who accepted his surrender -- at the Kral Zera, in front of a thousand witnesses, with the promise that he would be the first example of the new justice of the Galra Republic." And on top of that pile of sarcasm, Kolivan had the gall to shrug.

So did the prisoner. "I am equally at a loss," said Lotor, son of Zarkon. "My expectation was that I would be dead by now. It's far too dangerous to keep someone like me around. How was I to know I was surrendering, not to an Emperor about to be crowned, but to a hero of democracy? Is Keith _completely_ doing away with the death penalty, then?"

"You can run and see how far you get," Kolivan offered.

The former Emperor scowled. "I'll take my chances with the Black Paladin's mercy." He turned a civil gaze on Krolia. Far too intelligent to store anywhere that gave him time for his own devices. Far too skilled in too many disciplines -- including leadership -- for letting him rot in a cell to seem like anything but a waste when she'd spent all day reviewing their membership gaps. Far, far too dangerous to leave unsupervised or trust, which quite frankly meant assigning more highly skilled Blade operatives to guard him than she had to spare. However, she kept her face impassive while a mocking smile crept over their prisoner's face. "What's it to be, then? If I'm not to be executed, what can you do? Is it off to the spice mines with me?"

"Salt is mined," Krolia informed him with calculated boredom, making full use of her ability to avoid blinking. It made Lotor squirm nicely. "Salt is a mineral. Spices, being plants, are farmed -- both tasks performed by free citizens, not prison slave labor, under the new Republic."

"I see. I've learned something, then."

"Kolivan, did Keith give you guidance about how he wanted Lotor punished for his crimes?"

"I believe his exact words were, 'I don't know, community service?'"

She could work with that. "Excellent. Now, Lotor, as you know, the Republic is very young. We don't have a court qualified to judge and sentence you yet--"

"What are you talking about?" Lotor asked, scrunching up his nose as if a riding lizard had shat in the corner and it was stinking up the room. "Kolivan just told you what the Black Pal--"

Krolia smiled at him, offering a hint of fang. "No, no. We have courts now, with juries and everything. They're the hot new trend with governments that aren't despotic monarchies. But you're a little too much for them to handle before our Constitution is fully written, our new laws agreed to, and competent civilian judges elected to their positions. The founding of the Galra Republic was just as much a surprise to us as it was to you. So you and I are going to come to a mutual agreement, as two civilized people."

"I'm listening."

"The Blade of Marmora has a new detachment training directly under the Yellow Paladin of Voltron. You're going to join it."

Kolivan made a face. A subtle face, but a face nonetheless. "He's going to what?"

Lotor's was still smelling that imaginary lizard shit. "I agree with the good Commander. I'm going to _what_?"

"You're going to take cooking and field kitchen management classes from Hunk alongside our selected class of rising unit lieutenants. You, of course, know the Yellow Paladin, and will appreciate my certainty that Hunk will see through any and all bullshit you choose to engage in. I trust him to take whatever action he sees fit from there. You will be given your own bunk and allowed free access to the non-secure areas of the Blade compound, but you will not be allowed out, and you will not be allowed communications equipment. We will revisit those conditions after one phoeb." The dual looks of horror on Kolivan and Lotor's faces were most satisfying. "After your graduation from the course, which I expect you to complete successfully or you will repeat it until Hunk is satisfied, you will have the honor of commanding the community kitchen in one of the first relief aid missions to rebuild communities decimated by the last ten thousand years of Galra occupation."

"You can't be serious!" Lotor spat.

"What do you mean?" asked Krolia, deliberately misinterpreting him. She had no intention of explaining that Hunk had the best track record by far of convincing Galra under his supervision to, as he put it, 'Give peace a chance'. If they couldn't do anything _sensible_ with Lotor, she planned to give reforming him the most possible chance of actually working. "Both Keith and Acxa have spoken very highly of your leadership skills. I'm certain you'll do a wonderful job ensuring that grain and protein deliveries arrive on time, and that helpless orphans receive regular hot meals."

Lotor gestured to Kolivan. "No one will accept this! They hate me!"

It was Krolia's turn to shrug. "Kolivan will order them not to harm you. They'll obey. We won't tell the locals who you are as long as you abide by the terms of your surrender." The expression on Kolivan's face said he didn't like it, but he knew the right choice and he'd make it. "You will be summoned from your duties when we have the means to give you a fair trial, and the service you have performed for the community in the meantime will be subtracted from your sentence. That seems more than fair. However, if you turn down the offer, you will be held under house arrest to await trial for as long as it takes -- with all the rights of a political prisoner, of course."

"Of course," he muttered. Krolia watched him working through his decision. If she'd judged him correctly, he wouldn't last in solitary confinement, especially not surrounded by all of the trappings of a normal life with none of the freedoms. The question was whether he knew it.

When Lotor didn't answer after a moment, Krolia pulled up a transfer form. "All right. House arrest, then."

"I'll do it," Lotor sighed. "I'll take the cooking classes."

"Excellent. I'm sure nothing will go wrong, or that if something does go wrong, the appropriate person will be held accountable. Thank you. You may go."

As Kolivan was on his way out, he turned to growl, "I do not understand democracy."

Krolia pulled up an email to Hunk, who would need to know sooner rather than later. "No one understands it, Kolivan. I think that's the point."


	2. Technically Correct, the Best Kind of Correct

[About a year after the wedding, after one of Shiro's public appearances on Earth]

There was nothing better than a small karaoke party, in Krolia's opinion. They could spend time together, the music was too loud for surveillance devices to be effective, and the singing room was completely enclosed, so no one could see anything they shouldn't. Her son and his bond partner could engage in all the fond silliness they wanted. The establishment had video monitoring in the room, but those things were easily blocked, and the manager was... understanding... about her desire to do so.

Problem of how to have a party with the Paladins and associated persons without the media noticing that her son and Shiro were still pair-bonded: solved.

The next song that came up was Shiro's pick, although it sounded familiar. He jumped up, playing rockstar with the microphone. He was focusing on Keith, naturally. "He was a fast machine, he kept his motor clean, he was the best damn man that I had ever seen!"

No, definitely familiar, and according to the words on the screen (that Shiro wasn't reading), he was changing the pronouns to suit Keith. She still couldn't place it, but the memory would come to her eventually.

"_You!_ Shook me _all night long_...! Yeah, _you_...!"

"Ah! I remember!" Krolia announced. Everyone sitting around the table looked up from their song lists. "Keith, your father used to sing this song to me before you were born, when we went out to karaoke with his squad. I knew it was familiar."

Empty instrumental played as Shiro froze. He and Keith made horrified eyes at each other. "Baby, I think..."

"... we need a new song?" Keith finished.

Krolia took a sip of her iced tea. "Well, don't stop on my account."

"Oh no!" cackled Pidge. "AC/DC is dead now. Damn, Keith. I can't believe your dad had the same taste in ancient rock music as Shiro. You're like an archaeologist..."

From the corner, Curtis waved for her attention. "Wait. Krolia. I'm sorry, did you say you went out to karaoke with Keith's dad _and his squad_?"

"Well, yes. We spent quite some time with his Fire Department team. They were very nice gentlemen. Did you think they assumed Keith appeared out of thin air?"

"And it wasn't a problem that... um..." Curtis gestured around his head. Keith listened patiently, but with a smile, since he'd heard all this before -- mostly from old firefighters who'd come to the Garrison to hug him like a long lost nephew when they'd realized the Black Paladin of Voltron was Tex Kogane's son who'd disappeared into the foster system.

And then took one look at her in the cold light of liberation from Sendak's occupation, and put a handful of puzzle pieces together.

"That I'm an alien? No, I wore a hat to cover my ears."

Curtis gasped, "But you're _purple_!" Not to mention the fangs and the claws, but Krolia imagined that was implied under the circumstances.

"Tex told them I had a genetic condition. They never asked what it was."


	3. That Might Just Be You

[The day after the end of Chapter 7]

"Honestly, Keith. Having sex in the landing bay shows a lack of discipline." The omelet she was flipping lessened the gravitas of the situation a bit, but Keith could tell he was getting scolded.

He frowned, and stood up straighter, ready for a fight. "I made a judgment call. My judgment said my crew would be more able to handle Shiro's presence if they knew he'd gotten laid recently, so they wouldn't worry about him flipping out and killing them. And the fact that they're worried about that is _not_ my fault."

"Fair point," she conceded. It was annoying, but this fiasco had led to some nontraditional situations that required nontraditional solutions. Krolia pointed her spatula at her son's face anyway. "You're still making excuses, but I will concede that's a valid reason, given that you did get seen while you were in the so-called mood."

Keith slumped against the counter with a grumble. "There wasn't anything I could do about _that_, either. We'd just gotten out of a plane."

"I fail to see a connection, Keith."

"Riding in planes gets literally everyone alive turned on."

"You and Shiro do not constitute everyone."

"Literally every--" He shut his mouth when she narrowed her eyes. Good to know her withering glare was still working, anyway. "Wait, you mean that doesn't happen to other people?"

Krolia let out another of the long sighs that had been haunting her conversations recently. It was a wonder these things surprised her anymore.


	4. Never Mess with Me or My Son Again

[Between Chapters 4 and 5]

**Travalek, for Varga of Comedy Tonight:** "So, the last question many of my viewers have, as we try to understand this strange human arrangement, is how this particular human -- Curtis LaSalle -- became Shiro's ... _outlet_, shall we say? How did Keith handle the request?"

**Krolia:** "You say that as if Keith wasn't an active part of the decision from the beginning. Shiro is Keith's bond-partner. The human was chosen with Keith's approval and oversight."

**Travalek:** "Did I hear that right? When you say this choice needed Keith's approval--"

**Krolia:** "I believe I was very clear. The human was chosen with Keith's approval and oversight."

**Travalek:** "But do you mean he had to approve of a choice Shiro made, or that Keith--"

**Krolia:** "Shiro also found the man acceptable. Next question."


	5. The Birds and the Bees

[Three days after the end of Chapter 10]

The Princess had taken the entire explanation with grace, a reasonable number of intelligent questions, and the kind of composure a person could be forgiven for lacking, Krolia felt, when confronted with that kind of absurdity. She'd kept a straight face. She hadn't questioned that Krolia was telling her the truth. She'd made it clear that she would want to see all the pictures later, since fitting seventeen years into a briefing necessarily constricted how much media you could include. After learning how much bullshit was involved in government, Krolia rated Allura's temperament ideal for a shot caller. She certainly had more patience than Krolia felt most days.

Scanning the summary one last time, Allura nodded. "I think I understand. Although I do have one question, it's a bit more..." She smiled sweetly at Krolia. "Well. Personal... in import?"

Ah. The human sexuality questions. Krolia had assumed this would come up, which was why she'd told everyone else she'd take responsibility for briefing the Princess. Some things, it was more comfortable to ask someone with the same general experience of gender.

Krolia nodded, and the Princess asked, "So, these assertions about Shiro's... sexual needs. You say they're _entirely_ fictional?"

"Entirely. There is no truth to them at all."

"I see..." she said, pursing her lips. "So... you're saying Lance _isn't_ in heat?"

"I understand why you might think that, but no. Apparently, that's just his personality."

Tapping a perfect fingernail against her lips, Allura sighed. "Oh dear. I hope I didn't make a miscalculation, then. I had assumed he was seeking a sexual relationship when we began our courtship, and passed on some of my energy to... prolong his life stages, as it were. You know, ensure we could pick up where we left off? But if he's not in his mating cycle--"

"Mating cycle?" Krolia waved off her concerns. "No, there actually is no mating cycle. In my experience, the human preference for sex in humans who want it is best defined as, 'Early and Often'. If you want to have intercourse with Lance, I doubt you'll run into any issues."

"No cycle at all?!" For the first time this conversation, Allura's eyes flared wide, and her voice went hushed. "So you're saying your human was able to, ah... perform at will? He didn't have any limitations in that regard?"

Thinking for a moment, Krolia answered, "Well, one limitation. From the time he finished, Tex was unable to become aroused for about a dozen doboshes."

"Only a dozen doboshes?" Allura whispered.

"On average, unless he falls asleep. Tex was usually good for two to three rounds of satisfying his partner before falling unconscious, but if my son and Shiro are to be believed, a man can achieve greater stamina if you find you require it."

Allura crossed a line off in her notes. "Well, that's one problem solved. In that case, I'll assess Lance's limitations as soon as possible. Better to know early if improvements are necessary."


End file.
